


euthanized

by cinwin



Category: RWBY
Genre: Angst, F/F, One Shot, POV Second Person, they/them pronouns for cinder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-23
Updated: 2020-02-23
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:00:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22864417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cinwin/pseuds/cinwin
Summary: the soldier lands heroically in fria's room, bringing her sword down like a guillotine through the elongated black curse of cinder's grimm limb. while they seize and scream in the heat of the moment, winter schnee finally finds it in herself to put an end to what's been dragging out for far too long (and dragging lives along with it).
Relationships: Cinder Fall/Winter Schnee
Comments: 6
Kudos: 19





	euthanized

**Author's Note:**

> note that i use they/them pronouns for cinder based on my own personal headcanons. winter written with inspiration from a good friend. please enjoy this tiny ficlet!

you aren’t entirely certain what you’ve done until their body starts to go limp in your arms like a doll. you expected the thunderous screams, their tornadoesque seizing to grow in intensity, but instead, the sounds cease, and their figure calms. the storm passes. they look up at you with shock in their gaze like faded lightning against a grey sky, like they didn’t think you had it in you to do it, and the confusion in your own eyes matches theirs. but they look… grateful. their hand rises to clench the handle of your blade, and their eye slowly looks down to see their fate. blood drips from the right side of their mouth. the cursed limb and flesh begins to dissipate.

cinder fall hasn’t always been a wild animal terrorizing remnant, moaning and thrashing about in their agony, crushing others in the wake of their lust for power. you knew them before they were terminally ill with grimm implanted into them, posed to them as a gift, the only viable path to the strength they craved. their eyes used to shine when they laughed at how you teased them, and they teased you back and crawled on top of you with all the giddiness of a first time lover. they used to be human, simpler put, but it wasn't exactly fair to say cinder fall died all that time ago, either. they were still alive, in their own twisted way. eventually, happiness dissolved into constant frustration, indifference, and a muted capacity to feel anything that wasn’t unadulterated rage. they lost an eye and an arm and a third of their face in the process of running head first into danger without a second thought. 

sometimes you wondered if the good in them was ever there at all, or if it was the mask they wore for you. maybe you wondered that to convince yourself you could kill them back then. because to be honest with yourself, you knew all along that cinder was never wholly evil, and that held you back for far longer than it should have.

and so the life drained from them, physically and emotionally. it was a side effect of the sickness, affecting their brain, their heart, and their body until it was made up of black mush with hardly a will of their own remaining. the grimm tore away at the fabric of their soul with every cell it stole from its host. cinder didn’t know that until it was too late. no matter how they tried to sew themself back together again, once the first thread was tugged away, there was no fixing what would continue unraveling until they died. somewhere along the line, they made the decision to put the needle down and stop trying, ready to succumb to whatever awaited them.

so that is where you differ from every other soul who wants to purge their life. you saw who cinder was before they changed permanently, even if the memory has faded now. guilty as you may be for it, you knew more than anyone that cinder simply needed to be put out of their misery (lest their negativity bring harm to millions of others while they play the role of a puppet, never knowing that they were acting). anyone else would see them tortured, beaten, mutilated before ending their life for the horrors they’d committed. maybe that’s what they deserved. maybe they deserved worse than that, even — living out the rest of their days losing their mind until the evil rot them inside out, and the spool finally ran out of thread. 

you don’t know. all you know, now, is that it’s over.

when the black evaporates away from their left side in a trail of corrupted smoke, fall collapses for the last time, and you catch them as you always have, arms clutched around their back where the blade pokes out. for a moment, you think you hallucinate the right corner of their lips turning upwards. you stoop down to your knees and cradle them in your lap, hand reaching up to graze the flicker of a smile on their face with your thumb. “winter,” they gasp. you have given them the first breath, however ragged, of their very own in roughly five years, and the final word they speak on that breath is your name. their figure slowly gives way to death’s embrace, and their chest heaves with that knowledge. you weakly smile back, hardly, if only to assure them that you’re sorry it had to end this way, but you both knew it was coming, and it’s okay now. it’s over now. neither of you have been one for dramatic i love yous, and neither of you are about to break that silent dynamic now. you both hope that your expressions convey the way you feel about one another the way they always have instead of using words. the blood dripping from the corner of their mouth spills over your glove and onto the fabric of your shredded sleeve.

their remaining arm reaches to cup your face in their hand, but it drops and smacks the floor just as their fingertips graze your cheek with enough yearning for a lifetime in each one of them.

you don’t realize you began crying until you spot tears from your own eyes streaking down and intersecting with the blood on cinder’s frozen face. you can’t think of the last time you cried.

“winter!” a different voice calls, and this one is your sister’s. you're quick to wipe the tears away and place cinder's body on the cold floor, turning to her to ensure that she's safe. you pretend you don't care about them, the same way you've already forced yourself to for longer than you can remember.  
———————————————————————————————————————————————

when the ship takes off into the atlesian skyline, you watch until you know weiss can't see you anymore. you lean forward to cradle the corpse of the only lover you’ve ever known, and you blink tears that crash onto their torn clothes stained with your blood. your body crunches downward, forehead resting against theirs as your hands rustle through dark curls, and your chest rises and falls now that it’s truly setting in. it seeps into your heart with more weight than thoughts of them ever have before, yet despite that weight your heart still beats in your throat instead of your chest cavity. in your newfound despair, you squeeze your eyes shut and inhale shaky breaths that your lungs hardly process. footsteps of reinforcements approach in the distance. your lip trembles. 

nobody will mourn their loss but you.

and still, they surprise you. in their own way, they mourn you through the confines of death. the match of their absence ignites the gasoline of your veins, and when you open your eyes again, the fire of their soul (and many before them) expels a blaze of crystal blue from your stare.

'she’s a part of you, now,' you told penny. 

now they’re a part of you.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading my first work here! i hope you enjoyed it and i hope to post more soon.


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